The Platonic roots of just war doctrine: a reading of Plato’s Republic

Main Article Content

Henrik Syse

Abstract

Plato arguably stands as one of the precursors to what we today know as the Just War Tradition, and he has more to say about ethics and the use of force than what is often acknowledged. In this article I try to show, by analyzing selected passages and perspectives from the Republic, that Plato regards the role of military ethics as crucial in the construction of the ideal city, and he sees limitation of brutality and more generally a philosophical approach to the use of force as crucial elements of the city’s approach to warfare. Military power and, indeed, harsh preparations for it do occupy a central position in Plato’s political thought, but use of armed force is at the same time closely linked to the virtue of justice as well as the other virtues.

Article Details

How to Cite
“The Platonic Roots of Just War Doctrine: A Reading of Plato’s Republic”. 2010. Diametros, no. 23 (March): 104-23. https://doi.org/10.13153/diam.23.2010.384.
Section
Special topic – The Ethics of War
Author Biography

Henrik Syse

Henrik Syse
International Peace Research Institute, Oslo

How to Cite

“The Platonic Roots of Just War Doctrine: A Reading of Plato’s Republic”. 2010. Diametros, no. 23 (March): 104-23. https://doi.org/10.13153/diam.23.2010.384.
Share |

References

Baracchi [2002] – C. Baracchi, Of Myth, Life, and War in Plato’s Republic, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN 2002.

Brekke [2006] – T. Brekke (ed.), The Ethics of War in Asian Civilizations, Routledge, London, 2006.

Craig [1994] – L.H. Craig, The War Lover, University of Toronto Press, Toronto 1994.

Dorter [2006] – K. Dorter, The Transformation of Plato’s Republic, Lexington Books, Lanham, MD 2006.

Hobbs [2000] – A. Hobbs, Plato and the Hero: Courage, Manliness, and the Impersonal Good, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK 2000.

Johnson [1975] – J.T. Johnson, Ideology, Reason, and the Limitation of War, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ 1975.

Johnson [1981] – J.T. Johnson, Just War Tradition and the Restraint of War, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ 1981.

Kleemeier [2002] – U. Kleemeier, Grundfragen einer philosophischen Theorie des Krieges: Platon – Hobbes – Clausewitz, Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2002.

Mill [1863] – J.S. Mill, Utilitarianism, accessed from http://www.sacred-texts.com/phi/mill/util.txt.

Ober [1994] – J. Ober, Classical Greek Times, in: The Laws of War: Constraints on Warfare in the Western World, eds. M. Howard, G.J. Andreopoulos, M.R. Shulman, Yale University Press, New Haven, NJ 1994: 12-26.

Pangle [1987] – T. Pangle (ed.), The Roots of Political Philosophy – Ten Forgotten Socratic Dialogues, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY 1987.

Pangle, Ahrensdorf [1999] – T. Pangle, P. Ahrensdorf, Justice among Nations, Kansas State University Press, Lawrence, KS 1999.

Pappas [1995] – N. Pappas, Plato and the Republic, Routledge, London 1995.

Plato [1991] – Plato, The Republic of Plato, 2nd ed., trans. A. Bloom, Basic Books, New York, NY 1991.

Plato [2000] – Plato, Republic, ed. G. Ferrari, trans. T. Griffith, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK 2000.

Popovski et al. [2009] – V. Popovski, G. Reichberg, N. Turner (eds.), World Religions and Norms of War, United Nations University Press, Tokyo 2009.

Rabel [2001] – R.J. Rabel, Review of Angela Hobbs, Plato and the Hero: Courage, Manliness, and the Impersonal Good, “Bryn Mawr Classical Review” [e-journal], April 13, 2001, ac- cessed from http://bmcr.brynmawr.ed/2001/2001-04-13.html.

Rabieh [2006] – L.R. Rabieh, Plato and the Virtue of Courage, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD 2006.

Reichberg et al. [2006] – G. Reichberg, H. Syse, E. Begby (eds.), The Ethics of War: Classic and Contemporary Readings, Blackwell, Oxford 2006.

Syse [2006] – H. Syse, Plato, Thucydides, and the Education of Alcibiades, “Journal of Military Ethics” (5/4) 2006: 290-302.

Tejera [1999] – V. Tejera, Plato’s Dialogues One by One, University Press of America, Lanham, MD 1999.

Thucydides [1993] – Thucydides, On Justice, Power, and Human Nature – Selections from the History of the Peloponnesian War, ed. and trans. Paul Woodruff, Hackett, Indianapolis, IN 1993.

Trampedach [1994] – K. Trampedach, Platon, die Akademie, and die zeitgenössische Politik, Frank Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 1994.

White [1979] – N.P. White, A Companion to Plato’s Republic, Blackwell, Oxford 1979.